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31 May 2016

The Research Group at the University of Normandy (Rouen) and the Institut Universitaire de France host the 8th Conference of the European Network on Gender Differences in the History of European Legal Cultures.

Presentation:

The aim of the
8th conference of the network Gender Differences in the History of
European Legal Cultures will be to analyse the consequences of different
European juridical systems on the development of specific economic
roles for men and women. At the core of the comparative analysis, at the
European scale, there will be the different economic evolutions of
European regions in the early modern and modern times. Customary laws
characterized Northern Europe and Roman law characterized Southern
Europe, but at the local level there were many differences, depending on
urban statutes, craft rules, family structures, political and economic
systems.
Some gender historians of early modern economy applied to early modern
societies categories that had been created by the economists of emerging
countries in order to challenge the relationships between women's
economic rights, marital economy and economic development. In a
provocative and stimulating article, Amy L. Erickson suggested a
relationship between the development of English capitalism, in the 18th
century, and the fact that married women, under the regime of the
“common law”, lost all their properties. This allowed husbands to use,
and to invest, much more capitals than if they had had to save their
wives' dowry, in case they had to claim it, when widowed, as it was
current in Mediterranean Europe, under the regime of the Roman law. At
the same time, single women had the complete control on their goods,
much more than in most early modern societies. The outcome was that, in
early modern England, there was an important stock of potential
investors1.
In a recent article, Tine De Moor and Jan Luiten Van Zanden argued that
in Early Modern North-West Europe the transfer of property – from
parents to children and from bride to groom – was a crucial factor for
the development of “labour-market oriented” strategies, that enabled the
rapid economic growth of the area. Indeed, in North-West Europe the
necessity/will to amass resources with a view to marriage encouraged
young girls to enter the temporary service. At the same time, a marital
regime based on the conjugal fund, stimulated the wives to take part
actively in the business family. In contrast, in South Europe the
endowment system would have kept women away from the labour market,
since their position was more or less fixed by the presence of the
dowry, that they received as inheritance portion from their family
estate and got back from their husband's heirs in widowhood2.
Sheilagh Ogilvie suggested a link between the exclusion of both women
and Jews from the “social capital” represented by guilds' networks in
Southern Germany, and the subsequent lack of capitalistic development of
that region of Europe3.
The research about women and guilds in Early Modern European cities
often insisted on the exclusion on women from guilds, at least in the
early modern period. The problem of the presence, or rather absence, of
women from guilds is part of the more general problem of the evolution
of women's role in skilled activities, during the early modern times,
since the “decline thesis”, developed in 1919 by Alice Clark, and
challenged, for the Italian case, by Angela Groppi and Simona Laudani
and, for the French case, by Claire Crowston and Daryl Hafter.More
generally, the aim of the conference is to question the narrative of
the “great divergence” between the economies of Northern and Southern
Europe in relation with the opportunities that different juridical
systems gave to women and men to act in the society as economic actors.
Were they so different? Were women allowed to play a public role,
recognised at an institutional level? Which role did women’s property
play in the urban economy? And how did a specific kind of marital
economy influence the economic development? Are “industrious” and
“industrial” revolutions useful tools to understand the economic
development and, if it is the case, are they related to specific
juridical systems?

De Moor Tine & van Zanden Jan Luiten, Girl
power: The European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North
Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period , « The Economic History Review », 1(63), 2010, p. 1–33

De Vries Jan, The Industrious Revolution. Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008

Notes1 Amy Louise Erickson, Coverture and Capitalism, « History Workshop Journal », No. 59 (Spring, 2005), p. 1-162 Tine De Moor & Jan Luiten van Zanden, Girl
power: The European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North
Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period , « The Economic History Review », 1(63), 2010, p. 1–333 Sheilagh Ogilvie, A Bitter Living : Women, Markets, and Social Capital in Early Modern Germany , Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003

Practical details:

Please, send suggestions for contributions in the form of an abstract in English or in French (3000 characters max)by July 30th 2016to : anna.bellavitis@univ-rouen.fr and to beatrice.zucca@gmail.com.The
conference will cover the expenses of accommodation and most meals of
all speakers. The participants will be asked to make every effort to
secure travelling expenses from their own institutions but the
organizers are working towards reimbursing the cost of budget travelling
for those unable to find other sponsors.

Research articles:•Diemut Majer: Peter Saladin (1935 – 1997)•Christoph Schmetterer: Der strafrechtliche Schutz von Kaiser und Kaiserhaus in Österreich von 1848 – 1918 (The Criminal Protection of the Emperor and the Imperial Family in Austria 1848 –1918)•Astrid Lorenz: Parties and Rules. Constitution-making in the East German Länder after 1990•Andrew Watson: Victorian Jury Court Advocacy and Signs of Fundamental Change•Patrizia Resta: The Revenge of Soghomon Tehlirian•Javier Belda Iniesta: The Pleasure of Privacy: Confession and Inquisition as Means to Cause the Correction of Sinful Consciences around the IV Lateran Council•Rudransh Sharma: History of Legal Profession in India•János Jusztinger: Dogmatics of Criminal Law and the Roman Jurisprudence•József Benke: The Remembrance of ‘Praetor Paulus’ in Mid-Tudor England•Csaba Cservák: Development Span of the Hungarian Governmental Forms (in an International Comparison)•Katalin Ibolya Koncz: Divorce and Undeserving of Permanent Alimony according to the Practices of the Hungarian Royal Curia•Iván Halász: The Development of Czechoslovak, Polish and Hungarian Foreign Affairs Administration between the Two World Wars (1918 – 1939)•Dávid Klemm: An Attempt to Establish the European Army: The Pleven Plan•Przemysław Dąbrowski: The Structure and Powers of the Councils of State in the Kingdom of Poland between 1815 and 1867•Maria Lewandowicz: On the Universalist Heritage in the Codification of Private Law in Poland and Switzerland in the 19th and 20th Century•Lenka Šmídová Malárová: „Causa legittimae absentiae“ in Legal Praxis of the Medieval Town Law in Moravia•František Emmert: The Expansion of so-called Reich Citizenship in the Czech Territories during the War Years and its Post-war Consequences•Johan Schweigl: The Fundamental Events within the Development of Central Banking in the Czech Lands•Miriam Laclavíková, Andrea Olšovská: Besondere Arbeitsbedingungen von Frauen im Hinblick auf den Schutz vom Wert der Mutterschaft auf dem Gebiet der Slowakei – Vergangenheit vs. Gegenwart (Special Working Conditions of Women with Regard to the Maternity in the Territory of Slovakia - History vs. Present Times)•József Szalma: Einfluss der deutschen Willens- und Erklärungstheorie auf europäische zivilrechtliche Kodifikationen und Theorie über die Willensgeschäfte - mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des serbischen Privatrechts (The Impact of the Intention Theory and Expression Theory in the German Doctrine of Juridical Acts on the European Civil Law Doctrine and Codifications, with special Consideration of Serbian Law)•Dunja Pastović: “Defect of Sex”: Exclusion of Women from Jury Service in Istria 1873 – 1918•Arijana Kolak Bošnjak: The Flip Side of Freedom. The Attitude towards Pro-Hungarians in Banal Croatia in 1848/49•Engjell Likmeta: Some Reflections on the Delicts of the First Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania•Marina Baratová: The Evolution of Russian Housing Law during the 20th Century•Oleksandr Gavrylenko, Oksana Skryl:Legal Regulation of Civil Contracts in Ancient City-States of the Black Sea Northern CoastReaders React:•Andreas Raffeiner: Gedanken zum „Recht auf die Heimat“

Dennis Hortmuth reviews two books on German Early Modern constitutional history on Sehepunkte.de, both on the so-called "Wahlkapitulationen", or agreements concluded between the King of the Romans-elect or Emperor-elect and the members of the Empire.

The Legal History Blog announced the call for papers for next year's British Legal History Conference, to be held at University College London, from 5 to 8 July 2017.

Conference description:

In tracing the way that legal ideas emerge and expand, historians have
become increasingly interested in exploring the way that networks are
developed and connections made. Legal history is full of connections –
between people and places, jurisdictions and ideas. The way that the law
develops may be influenced by particular social, professional or
political groups, or by wider national, imperial or transnational
networks. The law may change direction because of new connections made,
whether in the form of the transplantation of legal concepts from one
forum to another, or in the form of the influence of new ways of
thinking or acting. These connections or networks may be simple or
complex, transitory or enduring, ad hoc or accidental. The aim
of this conference is to explore the wide range of networks and
connections which influence the development of law and legal ideas over
time, in a variety of different scholarly contexts. We welcome proposals
from historians interested in exploring these themes in all fields of
legal history, whether doctrinal or contextual, domestic or
transnational.

Practical details:

Proposals concerning any
epoch or part of the world are welcome and proposals from postgraduate
and early career researchers are encouraged.

Proposals for papers (maximum 300 words) should be sent to blhc2017@ucl.ac.uk by 26 August 2016.

Accomodation:

UCL is located in the heart of the Bloomsbury district in London and
is surrounded by a wealth of accommodation to suit all budgets.
Some local hotels, all within walking distance of the venue are:

UCL Residences:
UCL has a number of student residences into which visitors can book
accommodation. Ian Baker House and Ramsay Hall are all within a 5 minute
walking distance to the venue. Please see information on the Residences
website at:https://www.ucl.ac.uk/residencesHostels:
There are a number of decent hostels local to the venue:

This
contribution to the Handbook presents and analyses history of Article
38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (the ‘ICJ’ or
the ‘Court’). History of Article 38 is the starting point leading to
reflections on how as it stands at present. Therefore, the main theme of
this Chapter is to look at sources of international law through prism
of their historical development. Such an approach also includes
contenders to ‘new’ sources (acts of international organisations,
unilateral acts of States, soft law) which have emerged long after the
twelve ‘wise men’ (at times ‘angry twelve men’) of the Committee of
Jurists have completed their task of drafting of this Article.

The American Society for Legal History will host a Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, October 26, and Thursday, October 27, 2016, immediately preceding the ASLH’s annual meeting in Toronto, Canada. The SRC offers a small group of graduate and law students an opportunity to work on their in-progress dissertations and law review articles with distinguished ASLH-affiliated scholars.

The SRC’s target audience includes early post-coursework graduate students and law students interested in legal history. The SRC seeks to introduce such students to the ASLH and to legal history communities more generally. Students working in all chronological and geographical fields are encouraged to apply, as are students whose projects engage legal-historical themes but who have not received any formal training in legal history. Applicants who have not had an opportunity to present their work at ASLH annual meetings or who have otherwise not had an opportunity to discuss their work with legal historians are particularly encouraged to apply. A student may be on the program for the annual meeting and participate in the SRC in the same year.Each participating student will pre-circulate a twenty-page, double-spaced paper to the entire group. These papers will provide the foundation for discussion at the colloquium. The ASLH will provide at least partial and, in most cases, complete reimbursement for travel, hotel, and conference registration costs.

To apply to the ASLH’s Student Research Colloquium, please submit: • a cover letter;• a CV; • a letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor/advisor; • a two-page, single-spaced “research statement,” describing an in-progress dissertation or law review article.

The application deadline is July 15, 2016. Organizers will notify all applicants of their decisions by August 15, 2016. Please direct questions and applications to John Wertheimer at the following e-mail address: srcproposals@aslh.net.

Joshua Schroeder (University of Buffalo, SUNY) reviewed Richard S. Kay's The Glorious Revolution and the Continuity of Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2014). for H-War.

First paragraph:

The Glorious Revolution and the Continuity of Law by Richard S.
Kay applies a legal perspective onto the Glorious Revolution. Like many
major historical events, the Revolution of 1688 has received so much
scholarly attention that one may wonder how somebody could offer a truly
fresh perspective. However, as Kay seems well aware, the Glorious
Revolution does not lend itself easily to categorization. Was the
Glorious Revolution even a revolution? Should it be
understood as its own event or merely the final chapter in the
seventeenth-century English conflict with the Stuarts? Was it primarily a
religious or political event? Kay argues that a legal analysis of the
Glorious Revolution can provide the best perspective
on answering these questions. He deftly weaves a discussion of all of
these topics within his answer to the central question of his book: how
did the revolutionaries reconcile their stated goal of preserving the
English Constitution with the blatantly illegal
deposition of one king and installment of another? His simple answer,
they “faked” it, should not hurt appreciation for his thorough and
careful analysis of the legal arguments made by the proponents and some
detractors of the revolution (p. 17).

09 May 2016

WHAT What Not to Wear: Fashion and the Law, exhibitionWHENthrough August 12, 2016, 9:00-5:00WHERE Harvard Law School Library, Harvard Universityall information here

Though law and fashion may not initially seem like overlapping domains, given the central nature of each of these fields it is no surprise that they do have an impact on one another. Over the years, fashion has been important to decisions about how jurists visually demonstrate their expertise and law has served to circumscribe how fashion is created, distributed, and consumed.

This exhibit looks at some of these intersections of fashion and the law from historic laws setting strict class distinctions for fashion to modern intellectual property law’s approach to protecting those who design and create fashion.

What Not to Wear: Fashion and the Law, curated by Mindy Kent, Meg Kribble, and Carli Spina, is on view in the HLS Library Caspersen Room daily 9am-5pm through August 12, 2016.

Legal fictions are often used to lubricate the machinery of jurisprudence. One of these is the idea that laws created to restrict the liberty of some individuals or class of individuals in order to protect the public good are in effect outcomes of tradeoffs between abstract universals, namely liberty and the public good. A three way relationship is imagined in which law, liberty, and the public good are in creative tension. The role of the law in this three way tension is further imagined to be the mediator where it serves to calibrate this tension in ways that are also assumed to legitimate the intended outcomes in practice. In particular, where the outcome is the prevention of harm, then laws that curtail liberty must be seen not just as measures for the public good, but rather as necessitated by the potential effects of the very harm itself. The justification for this view is often traced back to the views of nineteenth century political philosopher John Stuart Mill, who famously expressed this in terms that have become known as the “harm principle”; specifically that “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

Katrina Jagodinsky’s enlightening history is the first to focus on indigenous women of the Southwest and Pacific Northwest and the ways they dealt with the challenges posed by the existing legal regimes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In most western states, it was difficult if not impossible for Native women to inherit property, raise mixed-race children, or take legal action in the event of rape or abuse. Through the experiences of six indigenous women who fought for personal autonomy and the rights of their tribes, Jagodinsky explores a long yet generally unacknowledged tradition of active critique of the U.S. legal system by female Native Americans.

Katrina Jagodinskyis assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska and a former fellow of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at SMU. She lives in Lincoln, NE.

How did American schoolchildren, French philosophers, Russian Sinologists, Dutch merchants, and British lawyers imagine China and Chinese law? What happened when agents of presumably dominant Western empires had to endure the humiliations and anxieties of maintaining a profitable but precarious relationship with China? In Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes, Li Chen provides a richly textured analysis of these related issues and their intersection with law, culture, and politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Using a wide array of sources, Chen's study focuses on the power dynamics of Sino-Western relations during the formative century before the First Opium War (1839-1842). He highlights the centrality of law to modern imperial ideology and politics and brings new insight to the origins of comparative Chinese law in the West, the First Opium War, and foreign extraterritoriality in China. The shifting balance of economic and political power formed and transformed knowledge of China and Chinese law in different contact zones. Chen argues that recovering the variegated and contradictory roles of Chinese law in Western "modernization" helps provincialize the subsequent Euro-Americentric discourse of global modernity.

Chen draws attention to important yet underanalyzed sites in which imperial sovereignty, national identity, cultural tradition, or international law and order were defined and restructured. His valuable case studies show how constructed differences between societies were hardened into cultural or racial boundaries and then politicized to rationalize international conflicts and hierarchy.